BACKGROUND AND AIMS:
There is an ongoing debate whether omega-3-fatty acids protect from cardiovascular disease mortality. We examined the associations of erythrocyte omega-3 fatty acids with mortality in patients referred forcoronary angiography.

METHODS:
Erythrocyte omega-3 fatty acid proportions were measured at baseline in 3259 participants of the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health Study (LURIC) using the HS-Omega-3 Index method. Associations ofomega-3 fatty acid proportions with mortality were investigated using Cox proportional hazards regression.

RESULTS:
During a median follow-up of 9.9 years, 975 patients (29.9%) died, 614 patients (18.8%) from cardiovascular causes. Proportions of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were inversely associated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in models adjusted for conventional cardiovascular risk factors. The strongest association was observed for EPA with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.89 (0.83-0.96) per increase of one standard deviation. Furthermore, we obtained evidence for a non-linear relation between EPA and mortality.

CONCLUSIONS:
EPA and DHA were associated with reduced mortality in LURIC, independent of other risk factors, with the association of EPA with mortality being non-linear.